36. The reports coming back from the field couldn't be better. Your new strain of rice is exceeding all of your expectations.
You developed it, using the latest techniques. It grows faster, has a tougher skin, and is more nutritious than the standard variety. It also does well without big doses of more chemicals--a strong selling point with today's sensitivity about the environment. This new rice could be a breakthrough for many Asian nations.
Your colleague Kiso is assisting you with the research and the development of the promising new grain. As field agent, he is traveling secretly from test side to test side. Working with a small network of scientists dotted across the vastness of East Asia, Kiso is supervising nearly a dozen such sites. The fields where the tests are taking place vary in soil, altitude, and climate.
Both you and Kiso know that careful testing is crucial and must be closely monitored. You must be able to guarantee that you have a grain that can survive under the actual conditions found in many lands. If your variety proves too delicate, or fails to perform better than competing kinds of rice, there will be little point in pushing ahead with the project.
According to plan, Kiso files weekly reports from his various field sites. To ensure secrecy, these arrive at your office in plain envelopes with no return address. Inside, each sheet of paper is stamped with a red letter. Each letter represents a country in East Asia.
Besides using the coding system, Kiso adds a geographic description of each country. Kiso is a geography buff, and this second safeguard was his idea. He had begun his career in geography, then transferred to your field. You're an expert on plant life, fertilizer, and growth cycles. But you agreed when Kiso suggested this method of identifying the countries. A competitor in Britain is also hard at work on new strains of rice. The code system provides basic protection against the competitor.
You slit open the bulky brown envelope that arrived at your office in California just a moment ago. Field reports from five countries are in the same package. Beneath the code letters in each case are lengthy notes on the crop's growth rate, durability, and projected yield per acre.
Rapidly skimming the reports' contents with a professional eye, you can't help whistling to yourself. The new rice really is proving to be a wonder crop. The report says that the rice grows quickly, shows good root destiny, and is tough. Also, it survives in all kids of terrain

You then return to the red letters that head Kiso's description. In Kiso's neat hand, the first country, A, is described as "shaped like an S, tropical rain forest, very populous, facing the South China Sea."

Country B earns this note: "a wet land bordered by mountains on west, north, and east; located between Thailand and the bay."

Kiso sums up Country C: "island nation in Pacific located due east of Southeast Asia mainland."

Country D is described as "the southern half of a peninsula with the Yellow Sea on the west and the Sea of Japan on the east."

Finally, Country E's description reads: "Pacific Rim island nation with four main islands."

You reach for your atlas, at the same time running your eye over the volumes of your encyclopedia. There's not a moment to lose in decoding Kiso's latest report and plotting the information. When you've done that, you'll be ready to announce your discovery, ahead of the competition!

36. To what countries do the letters refer? Hint: List the countries of East Asia, then use maps to find the country that matches each description.